


Running On Heaven's Backbone

by Burning_Nightingale



Category: Temple Run
Genre: Action/Adventure, Brother-Sister Relationships, Camping, Exploration, F/M, Fire-forged Friends, Gen, Nakama, living rough, tomb raiding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-13
Updated: 2013-12-13
Packaged: 2018-01-04 11:59:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1080743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burning_Nightingale/pseuds/Burning_Nightingale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deep in the Peruvian rainforest, there is a temple. Though discovered years ago, it has never been properly explored. Over the last twenty years, ten of the fifteen explorers who've been inside have never returned.</p><p>If ever there were a place for someone to make a name for themselves, it would be here.</p><p>Scarlett and her brother are the first to arrive at the Run, but they won't be the last.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running On Heaven's Backbone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aramley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramley/gifts).



> When I saw someone had requested Temple Run as a fandom I thought 'Wow, that's a pretty neat idea!' So, of course, I got bitten by a plot bunny and here this is. I think this is the first work in this fandom...ever? (Unless someone else writes it for Yuletide, of course!) This was super-fun to write, even as I was completely flying blind with personality and world-building; I just hope it doesn't crash and burn too spectacularly! I bet you never expected to actually get taken up on this, did you? xD
> 
> (Also, disclaimer: I know nothing about the mechanics of getting machine guns in helicopters and flying around with them. I hope it doesn't sound too implausible).
> 
> Warning for some language and unnamed characters' deaths.
> 
> Happy Yuletide!

Scarlett and her brother are the first to arrive at the Run.

It isn’t nicknamed that to start with. They’re aware that this is no ordinary temple; ten of the fifteen explorers who’ve come here in the last two decades have never returned, and of the five who did manage to make it back, two are in the asylum and three have never been on another expedition again.

But if ever there were a place to make a name for themselves, it would be here.

Guy strongly objects to the term ‘grave robber’, but Scarlett’s more practical about the issue. Might as well be truthful where you can be. And they do find an awful lot of what appear to be grave markers etched into the floor when they manage to bust their way into the temple through a side wall.

They also find an awful lot of gold.

Scarlett holds up a hand before Guy can go for it. “Be careful,” she warns. “ _Something_ happened to those other explorers, and we don’t know what. Anything could be dangerous.”

Guy nods. They creep around the edges of the huge central room, eyeing the treasure in the middle. No secret reveals itself. No hidden trapdoors, no spikes springing up from the floor, no vats of acid dropping from the ceiling. When they meet back in the centre of the room, everything is as serene and peaceful as when they entered.

“It’s got to be the treasure,” Guy says, frowning. “Maybe something happens when you take it?”

Scarlett eyes it suspiciously. There’s a lot of it, plates and vases and pots and jewellery, all stacked up in front of what appears to be an altar. “Let me guess,” she says, raising an eyebrow, “You want to take a piece of the treasure?”

“No point beating around the bush,” Guy shrugs.

Scarlett sighs. “Fine. Take something small.”

Guy walks over and picks up a tall golden goblet encrusted with rubies. He waits for a while, holding the cup a few inches off the table, and they both hold their breath.

That’s when something lets out a roar further inside the temple.

They look at each other, blinking. “What the fuck was that?” Scarlett snaps, unslinging one of her guns from a thigh holster.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Guy says, nervously laying his hand on the hilt of his machete.

Then Scarlett spots a huge shape lumbering toward them through the dark passageway that leads deeper inside the temple. “Shit,” she whispers.

The _thing_ , whatever it is, roars and rears up on its hind legs when it spots them, beating its chest with its fists. “You have _got_ to be kidding me,” Guy gasps behind her.

She turns and grabs his arm. “Don’t just stand there! Run!”

They’d climbed up the side of the mountain the temple sat in from behind, the smooth slope allowing a fairly easy ascent until they’d come to the start of the rocky outcropping, where they’d climbed using picks and ropes and found a tunnel which led them to the wall they’d busted through. Now, though, they found an easier way out. The main entrance to the temple leads out onto a hanging walkway, clear and free of obstacles, right up until the part where they come to the rope zip wire.

The monkey-demon-whatever-it-is is catching up to them, so there’s no time to think. Scarlett’s used to zip wiring down over large drops, but this time the drop is huge, right down to the valley floor. She doesn’t look down.

The rest of what will soon be christened ‘the Run’ is littered with hazards; sharp turns, raging rivers, broken walkways and low branches she can handle, but the spiked wheels and flame throwers? Is this a set-up of some kind?

How they make it to the end of the Run that first time is anyone’s guess. Eventually they get to it; what Guy helpfully terms ‘the Slide of Death’, a long scree covered slope that leads all the way back down into the valley and the only thing the demon-monkey seems reluctant to follow them down. They use handily available tree bark as surf boards the first time, and the thing stands at the top of the slope, screaming and roaring its anger for a whole hour before it vanishes back to the temple.

“Was that even real?” Guy wonders later as they sit in their camp, patching up the cuts and scrapes they took avoiding imminent death and immolation.

“Oh yeah, that was real alright,” Scarlett chuckles darkly as she binds up a long gash on her leg.

Guy looks at her suspiciously. “Why do you seem so happy?”

“Because,” Scarlett smiles, “now we know the secret of the temple.”

“You crazy?” Guy is staring at her incredulously. “You know we almost died like, a hundred times back there, right? We are so _not_ going back.”

“We so _are_ ,” Scarlett stands, testing her weight on the leg. “Did you see that hoard? I’m willing to bet there’s more where that came from, inside.”

“And what if there’s more demon-monkeys?”

Scarlett shrugs. “We bring bigger guns.”

/

Technically, ‘Scarlett Fox’ and ‘Guy Dangerous’ aren’t their real names. Pretty obvious, really, but they’ve been calling each other that since childhood. The names were a product of fantasy games in which they were the swash-buckling heroes, pirates or adventurers or whatever they wanted to be, a fantasy much better than the reality of the orphanage they were consigned to.

The birth certificates with their old names were thrown in the fire as soon as they were old enough to legally change them.

They don’t tell anyone about what they’ve discovered at the temple, but word gets out anyway. They set up a system for all the adventurers turning up to try their luck on the Run; a space for one tent in their camp, located in the prime spot for scaling the temple cliffs and for returning from the Slide of Death, and one map of the Run to be issued each time an adventurer attempts it and returned when they come back, all in exchange for a twenty per cent cut of whatever they manage to steal.

Considering the percentage of adventurers who only manage one or two goes at the Run before coming to untimely demises, and the fact that Scarlett and Guy automatically claim whatever they leave behind after their deaths, this turns out to be a surprisingly lucrative enterprise.

Scarlett begins to get a sense, or perhaps more accurately a feeling, for those who will survive more than a few tries at the Run. When Barry Bones presents himself to sign a contract with them, she knows. “That one’s a keeper,” she says to Guy when they’re alone, and her brother agrees because she always seems to know best.

Five completed runs later, Barry’s beginning to make a bit of a name for himself.

“Bringing back more than one piece of treasure, too,” Scarlett observes when he dumps them in front of her. “Some people would hide that, in order to keep more of it.”

“Couldn’t do it without the map,” Barry shrugs, “Which means I couldn’t do it without you. What can I say? I’m an honourable man. You help me, I’ll uphold my end of the deal.”

Guy laughs, taking the pick he’s working around his teeth out of his mouth for a few moments to comment, “I like you, Bones.”

Barry just smiles.

/

The first time Zack Wonder turns up, people laugh at him. When he comes in for a contract, even Guy snorts in disbelief.

Scarlett, though, hands him the paper, much to Guy’s bewilderment. “You serious?” he asks in an undertone while Zack’s signing.

“My feelings are never wrong,” Scarlett says smugly.

And of course, she’s right. Zack may like to do his thing in a crazy football get up, but that doesn’t seem to preclude him from being one of the best they’ve got. As summer slowly begins to turn to winter – as much as it ever does in the jungle, anyway, which isn’t a lot – less people seem willing to stay, most braving the Run once as some kind of badge of honour before terminating their contracts. Zack, though, remains, and by the time the worst of the winter rainfall is coming down it’s just the four of them. Guy, Scarlett, Barry and Zack, sitting round the small stove in the huge canvas main tent, eating beans and sausages fresh from the fire and listening in silence to the rain.

“You ever think that thing’ll come down here some day?” Barry says suddenly.

“What?” Guy asks.

“The demon-monkey.” By now that’s what they’ve christened it. Scientists have appeared to try and study it, but most have simply observed from helicopters as it chases explorers down the Run. No one has ever got close enough to actually ascertain what on earth it is.

“We steal from it all the time,” Barry continues, “You never think one day it’ll get tired of losing us down the Slide of Death and just come after us?”

“He got a point,” Zack rumbles, his deep voice tinged with slight apprehension. “That monster gets down here, we’re dead as dodos.”

Guy nods, but says nothing. Scarlett looks into the fire for a little while before she says, “One day, I’m gonna buy a huge gun or something, and just go take that thing out.”

There’s silence for a moment before Barry asks, “You serious?”

“Dead serious. That thing’s killed loads of people on the Run. One day, I’m going to get it.”

They all nod. “I’d be with ya, sister,” Zack murmurs, and they all agree in low voices.

/

The coming of spring brings heavier rainfall and a new arrival that sets Scarlett’s senses tingling. She’s short, bouncy, optimistic and whippet fast on the Run, teases everyone shamelessly and cares about nobody’s opinion but her own.

She introduces herself as Karma Lee, and Scarlett knows from day one that she’ll be the next addition to the little group of ‘professional’ Runners that she, Guy, Barry and Zack form.

What she doesn’t expect is that Karma will make a concentrated effort to be her friend.

“Because I actually like you, not just because we’re the only girls here,” she explains one night over the fire.

“Because we’re not,” Scarlett points out drily, motioning towards two women in her eyeline on the other side of the camp.

Karma waves a hand. “We’re the only two girls who _matter_.”

Scarlett snorts. “Got a high opinion of yourself already. You’ve only beaten the Run twice, y’know.”

“In wet weather conditions,” Karma says, her voice challenging but her smile friendly. “With the weather out there, those two have to count for what, five at least?”

“Maybe four,” Scarlett concedes, grinning.

“Well, I intend to complete it as many times as possible.” Karma bounces in her seat, her grin so wide Scarlett can’t help but wonder if it hurts to smile like that. “As many times as you, perhaps. How many times is that, by the way?”

“Fifteen, maybe?” At Karma’s widened eyes, she defers, “Well, we had to make the map, so we had to go over the same ground quite a few times. Y’know, to map it out.”

Karma smiles. “Alright, that’s my challenge. Fifteen times before the end of the year.”

Scarlett grins but feels a trickle of worry spread through her stomach. “Don’t push yourself too hard,” she cautions, “Even ten times would be pretty good.”

Karma laughs and pats her on the arm, her eyes glittering with determination. “Trust me, Fox. When I make a plan, I follow through.”

/

With summer comes an influx of thrill-seekers looking for one success on the Run to earn the prestige of beating it. Scarlett begins to vet the participants more strictly; she doesn’t want to be sending idiot daredevils up there to die. She notices fewer explorers, tomb raiders and grave robbers coming to try their luck, probably because they’ve heard of the five strong team they have going here and are reluctant to have to step up and compare to that level.

And it’s a pretty high level. Sometimes Scarlett thinks she’ll get out of practise, having to stay down at camp to deal with admin. She makes Guy handle it sometimes, but he inevitably messes something up. Documentation and maths were never his strong points.

That’s not to say Scarlett never goes on the Run. She takes a morbid kind of pleasure in precisely picking the most precious looking thing she can get her hands on from the rapidly dwindling stash of treasure in the main hall, and has even glanced back to gloat at the demon-monkey as she surfs away down the Slide of Death. She likes to think it knows her, now, knows who she is. She hopes it knows she’s coming for it, one day.

The arrival of summer also heralds the arrival of yet another candidate for their little team – now dubbed ‘The Core Five’ by the other members of camp – though even Zack the Football-Booted Wonder thinks this guy’s an escapee from the mental asylum.

Francisco Montoya is a strange-looking guy, to be sure. Why would someone wear what essentially looks like a conquistador outfit in the middle of a jungle? Especially here in South America, where that kind of thing could be considered rude.

Francisco never gives an explanation for this behaviour, as he always seems intensely reluctant to talk. Scarlett concludes that the reason for this is that his English is particularly bad, as getting him through the contract signing was like attempting to herd cats. Still, her instincts are never wrong, and by the time autumn rolls around Francisco has completed six successful Runs and even Guy has admitted that he’s ‘not that bad, really’.

Even if he does rarely, if ever, say more than ‘sí’ or ‘no’.

By the time late autumn rolls around most people are packing up to go home, and Scarlett suspects it will be just the Core Five – or Six, now –  here for the winter again. She’s never asked after any of their backstories, but she knows none of them really have anything to return home to. Karma seems excited at the prospect of spending Christmas ‘with company for once’, in her own words, which makes Scarlett smile.

But late one morning at the end of November an unexpected truck grinds its way up the narrow, rutted, severely pot-holed road towards the camp. Only a few people outside of the Core Six are left now and most of them are preparing to leave, if not today then within the week. Zack and Guy have gone up to the Run, Francisco is off foraging for plants in the forest, and Scarlett is checking her accounts ledger and totting up the totals of money in and out. Karma is sitting on an upturned box beside her, deeply engrossed in _Alice In Wonderland_ , while Barry is smoking just under cover in the doorway of the tent. “Hey, Scar,” he says, ducking his head back in. “You’re never gonna believe this, but some new guy just turned up.”

Scarlett looks up and raises an eyebrow at him. “Seriously?”

“Come out and take a look for yourself.”

Scarlett rises from the chair and walks over, Karma following a few seconds later. Barry holds the tent flap open for them to look out.

A small group of people have gathered around the truck despite the rain. A tall guy in a Stetson has jumped down from the cab and engaged them in conversation. They nod and turn to point in Scarlett, Barry and Karma’s direction, and the Stetson-wearing man turns his head in the direction of their outstretched arms and nods once, decisively.

“I swear I’ve seen that guy before,” Scarlett mutters to herself.

“You would have,” Barry says, frowning, “That’s Montana Smith.”

Karma makes a soft noise of awe. “ _The_ Montana Smith?”

“Yeah, _the_ Montana Smith. What’s a big-shot tomb raider like him doing way out here?” Barry’s expression is dark, though Scarlett can’t really comprehend why. Everyone has heard of Montana Smith, obviously, but she’s never heard anything dubious about him.

She doesn’t have time to ask Barry about it, because all this time Montana has been coming closer and now he’s within earshot. “I’m told you’re the lady to talk to about joining this fine establishment?” he says, raising his voice to be heard over the rain.

“You’re told right,” Scarlett replies. “Get in here out the rain.”

Inside, Montana sweeps off his hat and gives her a polite nod. “Nice to meet ‘cha. Montana Smith’s the name.”

“Yeah, we know that,” Barry says, his voice tight.

Montana turns and gives him a big smile that doesn’t seem entirely friendly. “I expected to find you here, Bones, just didn’t ‘spect to see you so soon.”

“Didn’t expect to see you here at all, a hot-shot like you,” Barry says, scowling.

Before Montana can reply, Scarlett cuts in. “You’re joining?” she asks him.

He turns his attention to her with a smile. “If you’ll have me. I’ve heard there’s a vetting process going on.”

“For amateurs and thrill-seekers,” Scarlett smiles, “I think you’ll pass the test.”

Barry’s giving her a _look_ , but she can’t tell what he’s trying to communicate so she ignores him and goes to the metal box where she keeps blank contracts. “All you need to do is read this and sign it in a few places…”

And with that, one of the most famous tomb raiders ever is on her books. She expected to feel something from him, her usual tingling, but she doesn’t feel that. Or not quite, anyway; she definitely doesn’t feel nothing like with those who’ll fail or won’t stay, but it’s not the same as when the others arrived. Montana Smith is a mystery to her from day one, and despite the fact that he pulls off his first Run with an aplomb that suggests he belongs in their little inner circle, she has reservations. She likes him, he Runs well, but her feelings have never been wrong before.

Her feelings have never been confused before, but she decides not to take that into account.

Montana and Zack work together on a huge spit roast for them on Christmas morning, and they open their ‘presents’ to each other – Scarlett gets a piece of interesting bark from Francisco, a new water canteen from Barry, a crystal embedded in rock from Karma, a possibly-Aztec coin from Zack, a new pair of gloves from Guy and a pretty Hibiscus flower from Montana. She puts the flower in her hair and pockets the other items, and they set about playing a foul-language peppered game of charades as they wait for the meat to cook.

The rain holds off enough for them to go outside and take a walk through the forest. Karma ropes Zack and Barry into playing I Spy with her, Francisco disappears and Montana wanders off by himself, so Guy and Scarlett are left alone, walking a ways behind Karma, Zack and Barry. They’re quiet for a while, listening to Karma crow with triumph as she wins more rounds than the boys.

“Somehow I didn’t think this is what we’d find, when we came out here,” Guy says eventually in a low voice.

“I don’t think anyone expected our little exploration expedition to become…this,” Scarlett murmurs back.

“About the demon-monkey,” Guy says, and he now definitely has Scarlett’s full attention. “It’s been a while. The treasure in front of the shrine is all but gone. If we want more we need to look deeper, and to do that that _thing_ needs to be gone.”

Scarlett nods slowly. “New Year’s Resolution?”

Guy laughs, long and loud. “What else are New Year’s Resolutions for?”

They smile at each other and shake on it, and then Karma’s calling their names so they rush to catch up with the rest of the group.

/

The rest of the winter season is as rainy as Scarlett has ever known it, and despite the drainage system they dug in the summer some parts of the camp flood, though it’s nothing serious. Karma convinces Scarlett to come run out in the rain with her, and they splash barefoot through the mud together, laughing, their hair hanging in rat’s tails around their shoulders while the others look on from the safety of the main tent.

One evening, when she and Guy are sitting together in the warmth of the main tent with the rain pouring outside, Scarlett asks, “Did anything ever come to a head between Barry and Montana?”

Guy takes his cigarette out of his mouth and looks at her questioningly. “What do you mean?”

“Barry seemed very hostile toward him when he got here.”

“Oh, that.” Guy shrugs. “I think they slugged it out one night a little way into the forest. Settled things. They ain’t best pals now, but they can tolerate each other.”

“Men,” Scarlett sniffs, “Solving problems with their fists as usual.”

“Would you rather deal with their problems?” Guy counters.

“No.”

“There you are, then.”

Scarlett observes for herself whether Barry and Montana’s attitudes have changed, and surmises that her brother’s assessment is a true one. They still don’t like each other, but they can work together for the greater good if they need to.

Montana comes to see her one night while she’s attempting to open one of the supply boxes with a crowbar. The thin wooden lids are always nailed down tight, but she’s got the right leverage for lifting them off down to a fine art.

“You got a strong arm,” Montana comments as the lid cracks and comes up.

She smiles thinly. “Wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

A small smile creases his face for a moment, but then it disappears and he frowns. “I heard from Guy you guys are thinking ‘bout going after that demon-monkey thing.”

She stands straight. She didn’t know Guy was going to tell anyone about this; she’d assumed they’d just keep it between themselves. But, she reflects, it probably isn’t a bad thing that Montana knows. “Yeah. Been thinking ‘bout it since we got here. That thing’s blocking our way into the lower temple, and it keeps killing people, so.”

“Yeah, I can see why that’d be a motivator.” He looks thoughtful, but concerned. “You sure you got the firepower to take that thing out?”

Scarlett sighs and rolls her shoulders. “Not yet. But come spring the mountain roads will be clear, and we can bring what we need up here.” She looks at him, her face hard with determination. “This summer, that beast is going down. I’ll kill it or I’ll goddamn die trying.”

He looks at her for a short moment, an unreadable expression in his eyes, then lays a hand on her arm. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t die,” he says quietly, “But I understand.”

/

True to her word, when the mountain roads are clear a truck brings them what they need.

“How many rifles and machine guns do we need for this thing?” Barry wonders aloud, digging through the new supplies.

“Have you seen that monster?” Zack mutters. “If it wouldn’t bring down the whole temple, I’d throw a sticky bomb at it and get the hell outta dodge.”

“We got enough firepower to take this thing out,” Scarlett says, ignoring Zack and Barry’s discussion. “We need to set a day.”

Guy smiles; he looks as eager as she feels. Karma looks slightly apprehensive, but resolved. Montana, behind her, has an inscrutable expression. Scarlett has always found it hard to tell what he’s thinking, but now she’s getting exactly zero.

Still. It doesn’t matter; he’s agreed to come along, and that’s what counts.

She gives them a week to prepare. It’s enough, she thinks, to at least be in with a chance of making an attempt at this thing. They gather in the main tent the night before, just the seven of them, and sit around staring into the fire, not talking. Other people have returned to the camp with the advent of spring, but they all seem to sense the atmosphere, and the pile of weaponry in the supply tent doesn’t leave much to the imagination.

Scarlett had planned to set up some kind of pulley system to get the heavy gear to the top, but she wakes up the next morning to the deafening whirring of a chopper’s blades. Stumbling out of her tent with sleep still in her eyes and her hand on the hilt of the long knife in her belt, she finds the helicopter landing in a circle of clear grass on the edge of camp that she swears wasn’t there the night before. All the tents are being battered and rocked about by the force of the wind from the blades, and she can hear people shouting somewhere in the distance. A hand grabs her arm and she turns to see Guy, looking worried. Karma and Barry aren’t far behind him. “You think someone heard about us going to take out the monkey?” Guy yells over the noise.

Scarlett shrugs and shakes her head. All they can do is wait for the chopper to land and for whoever’s in it to appear. As the doors open, Montana strolls up behind them, looking totally at ease. “Guess I should’ve mentioned these guys beforehand,” he shouts over the now steadily declining noise of rotor blades.

Scarlett whirls to face him. “You know these guys?”

“Friends of mine,” Montana nods. “Called them up here to help with the operation.”

Scarlett feels relief flood her. If these are Montana’s friends, she thinks, surely she can trust them.

They come over to greet them when the chopper blades have finally slowed to a stop. They’re friendly and Montana seems to have filled them in beforehand, so they fully expect to be flying their chopper into a potentially dangerous situation and don’t seem fazed at all. With the helicopter at their disposal, the mission will be much simpler, and without the precarious climb to the temple both they and the gear will be safer. Someone will still have to go into the temple on the ground to lure the demon-monkey out, but once it’s on the Run they can shoot at it from the helicopter with impunity.

They load up the gear; two heavy mounted machine guns, an assault rifle each, a crate of grenades, one crate of dynamite and couple of crates of ammunition. Scarlett calls a meeting together before they leave. The Core Seven, as they’re called now, Montana’s helicopter friends and the other few adventurers still at camp gather round to hear her speak.

“You all know what we’re gonna do,” she starts. “This may be an idiotic mission. We may not come back. But if we succeed, no one will have to do the Run again. We can work out ways of safely getting up to the temple and safely bringing back all that we can find there. And most of all, we can revenge all those people that damn _thing_ has killed. So, we’re going to kill the demon monkey.” She gives them a half-mocking salute. “See you when we get back.”

The group laughs, someone cheers, a few people clap. Then they’re packing themselves into the tiny space within the helicopter and the metal around them begins to shake as the blades start up. The people they’re leaving behind gather a short distance away and cheer as they lift off.

“That way, up toward the peak,” she hears Montana direct the pilot, and her stomach lurches slightly as the chopper tilts to change direction. She’s never been fond of helicopters.

She looks around at their little group. The Core Seven, all the people she sensed would make it on the Run, from the beginning with her and her brother right up until the end with the seven of them gathered here. “I guess this is it,” she says quietly. “No more monkey, no more Run.”

“But _not_ no more Seven,” Karma says with a grin, and everyone agrees; Guy with an enthusiastic ‘Yeah!’, Barry with a small but pleased smile, Zack with a solemn nod, and even Francisco with a considered, ‘Sí’.

“We’re a team,” Montana says, and he catches her eye and smiles.

She smiles back, though she feels it’s a little crooked. “Yeah, we’re a team,” she agrees, and laughs quietly.

They all get quiet when they come in sight of the temple. Scarlett takes a deep breath in, steels herself. The chopper pulls up and circles in, getting ready for a landing, and she says determinedly, “Me and Guy are going inside.”

There’s a little resistance, but not much. They all know most of them have to stay in the helicopter to shoot at the demon-monkey, and if ever there was a de-facto leader, it’s Scarlett.

Montana, though, is unmoveable. “Three go in, four stay here,” he says, “That makes sense. I’m coming whether you like it or not.”

Scarlett wants to argue with him, but she’s never been recognised as their leader, and he _did_ bring them the helicopter that made this whole thing possible, so she can’t really deny him. “Fine,” she snaps, and then the helicopter’s landing and they’re jumping out, and she can hear the others calling ‘good lucks’ and ‘goodbyes’.

They enter the darkness of the temple with caution, Scarlett’s hands sweating where she clutches the cool metal of the gun. Before she’s only ever been able to afford handguns or a shotgun. This is on a whole new level, and it makes her half more confident and half more nervous, a strange contradiction that she can’t quite work out.

The temple is quiet when they get into the main hall. “We’ll have to go further in to find it,” Scarlett whispers. They creep past the altar and towards the opening that leads further down into the temple, where the demon-monkey always appears and where none of them have ever been. Guy and Montana hang back, securing the perimeter of the main hall, while she presses on toward the opening.

It’s so dark she can barely see ten metres into it. She wonders about lighting a flare or using her torch, when she’s distracted by a shape in the darkness. Guy and Montana are still pacing both sides of the outer room, checking the corners, so she’s practically alone as she peers into the darkness, wondering what she’s looking at.

Suddenly, something glitters, reflects the light, and after a moment she realizes she’s looking at an eye.

She’s looking at the demon-monkey.

She cries out and stumbles backwards as it roars and launches itself forward. A swipe of its claws misses her head by a hairsbreadth. She can hear Guy screaming her name, and she ducks under a slab of masonry to avoid another swing.

She hears boots run across the floor and a stutter of gunfire. The demon-monkey roars, turning from her toward someone else. She pulls herself out from under the slab and pokes her head up to take stock of the scene.

Guy is running behind various bits of fallen stone, alternately shooting at and hiding from the monkey. More gunfire is coming from somewhere else in the room, but she can’t see Montana from where she is. “Lead it out, lead it out!” she yells at them. Guy appears to ignore her and the monkey continues to chase him, but Montana darts out from behind a fallen pillar and sprints across the room toward her.

He slides in behind her slab and says shortly, “We gotta get outta here.”

“I’m starting to like Zack’s sticky bomb idea more and more,” Scarlett mutters.

“No time for that now,” Montana leaps up over the slab, just as the demon-monkey lands a direct hit on the piece of masonry they just saw Guy slide behind.

Montana freezes as it shatters and crumbles, but Scarlett springs into motion. “Guy!” she screams, and begins running toward the fallen wreckage, regardless of the huge beast looming in front of her.

She feels a hand catch her arm and Montana pulls her back as the monkey lunges. He pushes her behind a fallen piece of wall as the monkey roars past. She tries to break free of his grip but he holds her steady. “Don’t get yourself killed!” he hisses.

She can feel tears on her face, the first time she’s cried in years. “Let me- let me-” she stutters, but she can’t get any more words out.

“Come on,” Montana snaps, and drags her by the arm, in and out of the stones towards Guy. The monkey is looking for them, and it seems confused.

By the time they get to where Guy is lying, half covered by fallen rocks, Scarlett has a better hold on herself. “We have to get him out of here,” she says, beginning to grab the rocks and throw them away. Guy moans and mutters something, so she can tell he’s not dead at least.

“There’s another entrance, isn’t there?” Montana asks. They can hear the monkey coming closer; it can probably hear them whispering.

“A side wall we busted up when we first came in,” Scarlett confirms.

“You get him out through there. I’ll take a piece of treasure and lead it out the front entrance.”

“That’s dangerous,” Scarlett protests.

Montana laughs. “Scar, that’s exactly what we’ve been doing all the time we’ve been here. Plus, when I get out the door there’s a helicopter waiting to open fire on that thing. I’ll be just fine.”

She smiles thinly. “I guess you will.”

They pause there for a few moments, heedless of the monkey and its frustrated roar as it can’t find them. “Get him out safe,” Montana says quietly, laying a hand on her arm.

Scarlett laughs quietly. “Steal the biggest bit of treasure you can find, and don’t look back,” she says, taking his other hand and squeezing it.

The moment holds for a little longer before Montana lets go of her and springs into action. He bursts out from behind the rocks and sprints to the altar, the monkey roaring as it catches sight of him. He picks up a long necklace glittering with emeralds and swings it around in his hand. “You want it?!” he yells at the monkey. “Come get it!” He turns and sprints out, and the monkey follows.

Scarlett hears the guns on the helicopter open fire as she gets the last rocks off Guy’s legs and hauls him up into a sitting position. “Help me out here, man,” she mutters, trying to get him to stand. He tries to stand on his own feet and sort of manages it. She gets his arm around her neck and starts to drag him toward the wall they made the hole in nearly two years ago.

They make it, somehow, to the hole, and Scarlett drags them through and up the tunnel. The noise from outside recedes into nothing more than the dripping of water and their feet scraping against the ground as they get further up the tunnel. She wonders what’s going on outside. Whether they’ve been successful.

Eventually she sees light at the end of the tunnel, and they make it out into the bright sunshine. A small ledge covered in greenery juts out over the abyss, and she and Guy collapse there, exhausted. She’s not sure how the others will find them here, only that if all else fails she’ll be able to get back into the temple and out, somehow, maybe even through the Run. Everything can be fixed, she thinks, even if it’s hard to do. She’s never been one to give up.

They sit there for a while, and Scarlett checks over Guy’s wounds. Her medical skills aren’t quite up to par, so she can’t tell the full extent of the damage, but his right leg might be broken, she thinks, and something might be damaged inside. Fear grips her chest like an iron vice, but she’s got no way of getting him out of here and she’s too exhausted to drag him back down the tunnel. He’s not unconscious, at any rate, which she takes as a good sign. Soon, she thinks, she’ll go back, find help. Soon. But she’s so tired. She leans back against the rock wall and lets her feet dangle over the edge of the drop, and Guy leans his head on her shoulder and murmurs, “This place really did a number on us, huh?”

She nods, silently. After this place, they’ll never be quite the same.

/

Perhaps an hour later the chopper swings round the side of the mountain and finds them, still sitting side by side on the ledge. It comes in as close as the pilot dares and then Barry and Montana jump across, and convince Scarlett to jump back the other way. Ensconced in the helicopter with Karma checking her over for damage, she watches as they pull away from the ledge. Barry and Montana each get a shoulder under one of Guy’s arms and start carrying him back into the temple. “We’ll go round and get him,” Karma explains, cleaning one of the cuts on Scarlett’s face.

“Did we get it?” Scarlett asks, her voice laced with tiredness.

“Sure did,” Karma grins. “Took it down almost as soon as Montana led it out onto the Run. Turns out it’s as flesh and blood as you or me. Spent the rest of the last hour circling the mountain looking for you two.”

Scarlett smiles. “We’ll sell the carcass off to the British Museum of Natural History, and they can stuff it and put it in with the dinosaurs.”

Karma just laughs.

/

Now it’s a Friday evening a year later, and Scarlett is late.

“Where did I leave my keys?” she mutters, rifling through the piles of paper on the kitchen table. “If only you’d never decided to write a paper, Guy, we’d never have this much crap cluttering up the place. I swear you have half a rainforest here.”

“If it gets accepted they might let me take a degree,” Guy points out from where he’s waiting by the door. “Why do you need your keys, anyway? I have mine.”

Scarlett huffs. “Fine. You better not lose yours.”

“I’m not that bad,” Guy laughs.

They take the tube five stops, with Scarlett shifting restlessly all the way. She’s never been comfortable in fancy clothes, especially dresses. “Stop fidgeting,” Guy whispers to her as they exit the tube station and walk down the pavement arm in arm. “You look great.”

“At least someone thinks so.” Scarlett tries to sound scathing, but nervousness tinges her words.

They’re about to receive an award; something to do with contribution to science or something. Scarlett didn’t actually think when she made the joke about the Natural History Museum that it would really come true, but now they’re the guests of honour being shown through the doors into a central hall that features the stuffed demon-monkey as a temporary centre piece. She and Guy stare up at it, and for some reason Scarlett has to fight the instinct to laugh.

“That’s a sight and a half, isn’t it?” a familiar voice says behind her, and she turns to smile at Barry.

“Didn’t think I’d ever see you in a suit,” she grins.

“Didn’t think I’d ever catch you in a dress,” he grins right back.

She plucks self-consciously at the hem of the forest green, low-backed _thing_ that was the only thing she and the shop assistant could just about agree on. “I hate dresses.”

Barry snorts. “I hate suits.” He gestures around. “But welcome to the world of fame and fortune.”

She hears another familiar voice, and turns to see the rest of them gathered under the monkey, laughing at something Karma has said. Somehow someone’s managed to manhandle even Francisco into a suit, and Karma has on a lovely dove-grey number, short-skirted and elegant.

She and Barry make their way over, and together they all catch up on what’s been happening over the last few months.

After Guy was hospitalized, the others capitalized on all the time they could get to explore as much of the lower temple as possible before some government agency could come in and start making claims. Needless to say, with what they found and craftily managed to hide from the authorities in terms of valuable items, none of them will be going short on money for the considerable future. Sometimes Scarlett feels a little bad about selling off what must be priceless material in terms of historical study, but she knows a few of the dealers well enough to know that if they don’t make a fortune selling to private collectors who’ll probably share their new finds with historians eventually, they’ll sell to museums who’ll pay through the nose anyway. It’ll all be discovered in the end, and meanwhile she and Guy can afford a decent flat in central London and a bank account of savings.

When the Peruvian government had moved in and they were about to be moved out, they’d all gone their separate ways. She and Guy had gone back to London, Montana and Zack back to the States, Francisco back to Spain and Karma had gone jet-setting off around the world on an extended holiday, complete with hundreds of postcards sent to Scarlett from every destination.

Scarlett has no idea what the others are going to do now. She has no idea what _she_ is going to do now. She’s achieved her goal; become a famous tomb raider – ‘archaeologist’, they’re calling her tonight – and she’s made a fortune. Now Guy has his paper, but so far she hasn’t found anything to focus on.

They go through a precisely planned program, including a formal dinner, speeches and an awards presentation, all of which makes Scarlett even more uncomfortable than before. Whatever she wants to do next, doing too much of this is _not_ on the agenda.

 Eventually the tables are pushed back for dancing, and Scarlett sits herself down on a chair at the edge of the floor to watch the couples and nibble on a few choice desserts. It isn’t that she can’t dance, just that at the moment the treacle tart is much more interesting.

“Deep in thought?” a familiar voice asks.

She smiles at Montana as he sits down beside her. “Not really. Just enjoying the pudding.”

“It’s good dessert,” he laughs, then holds out a hand. “But is it good enough to refuse an offer to dance?”

She chuckles and sets down the plate. “Not quite, luckily for you.”

He’s a good dancer, just to add to his charm. “Guy tells me he’s writing some kind of academic paper,” he says after they’ve matched time and conquered the first few steps.

“It’s all he’ll talk about lately,” she smiles.

“And you?” he asks. “Nothing planned?”

“Not so far, no,” she says with a shrug.

“Back into the field?”

She shrugs again. She really has no idea.

He grins. “Come chat with me and Karma later,” he says mysteriously, and then he song ends and he nods and lightly, ever so lightly, presses a kiss to her hand before leaving her alone.

Guy convinces her to dance with him and then with a few professors he knows, and Barry dances with her once because ‘if Smith did it I’ll do it too, dammit’, but she doesn’t really focus on anything that happens until she catches Karma waving to her out of the corner of her eye.

Karma leads her away from the main room and bounces up a secretive set of stairs to a small dark projection room. The projector isn’t running, but Montana is there, fiddling with it. So, in fact, is everyone else, lounging on chairs and chatting quietly. “We’re all here,” Karma trills, “Is it ready?”

Montana nods and flicks a switch. A picture wavers into focus on the screen, of a beach with bright white sand and turquoise water. “Group holiday?” Guy quips.

“Not so much,” Karma smiles, moving to the front. “This here is Greece, and this,” she motions to Montana, who presses the next button. Another image appears, of what appears to be the dark mouth of a cave. “ _This_ is our new expedition. An ancient Greek temple that’s just been discovered. If you all choose to accept, of course.”

Scarlett smiles as the others begin debating. Greek sun, cave diving and looking for treasure in an ancient buried temple? It sounds amazing. “Is it guarded by some horrible cave monster?” she asks aloud. Karma shakes her head, grinning, so Scarlett nods. “Okay. I’m in.”

Later on, when they’ve all decided they really can’t turn down the opportunity to be the Core Seven once again – even Guy and his paper, which he claims he can write there – Scarlett leaves the building to stand on the grass outside, breathing in the summer air and the sounds of the evening city. She’s alone for a long time before she senses someone behind her.

“You forgot your coat.”

She smiles as she turns to take it. “Guy would have brought it out for me.”

“Sure,” Montana smiles as he holds the coat open, “But guys like me have to take opportunities to be gentlemen when we can.”

She laughs and lets him slip the coat onto her shoulders. She can’t decide if his hands really linger slightly, or if it’s just her imagination.

“Why did you decide to come?” he asks quietly.

She smiles up at him as she turns. “I didn’t have anything else I wanted to do.”

“Nothing else?”

She laughs quietly. “Nothing.” After a beat of silence, she finds herself saying, “Y’know Scarlett was never my real name?”

He laughs with her. “Did you think my parents really called me Montana?”

She snorts. “Anything’s possible.” She looks away, over the road. “Me and Guy used to make up stories. Adventures. Call each other by our special names. ‘Scarlett Fox’ and ‘Guy Dangerous’ sounded so exciting. And then, somehow, we got to do real life adventuring as adults.” She looks back at him, grinning. “Why would I give that up?”

He chuckles. “Fair point. I never could.” They’re silent for a few moments, holding each other’s gaze, before Montana laughs suddenly. “Hey, how about I’ll tell you mine if you’ll tell me yours?”

“What?” Scarlett looks confused.

“Your name.” He smiles. “Your old one.”

“Oh.” She looks down. “It was Emily Sachs.” Then she looks back up and smiles. “And you?”

“Jeremy.” Montana shakes his head and laughs. “Damn, I haven’t been called that since I was sixteen. Jeremy Mortimer, that was my name.”

“Well.” Scarlett gives him a mock curtsy. “Nice to meet you, Mr Mortimer.”

He laughs loudly. “And you, Miss Sachs.” And he takes her hand and places one soft kiss on it, just like earlier. Then he looks up at her, his eyes sparkling with laughter, and she smiles, and somehow finally feels that feeling, that sense of belonging she missed when he arrived on the Run so long ago.

The city traffic is loud, the breeze in the trees around them seems to echo in the space, and she can hear Karma’s voice calling her name in the distance. “I’ll see you in Greece then, Mr Smith,” she says quietly.

He lets go of her hand and takes a step back. “Hopefully before that, Miss Fox.” He smiles widely. “And hopefully many, many times after.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Just in case anyone was wondering (and because it was originally in the fic before I edited it out), Guy's real name was David Sachs, Zack's real surname was Jefferson, and Barry's real surname was Jones. Karma and Francisco use their original given names.


End file.
